7 OCTOBER 1916, Page 2

We have read with satisfaction Lord Cromer's letter to Wednes-

day's Times in regard to the Serbian Society, of which he is President. Some misapprehension, he tells us, appears to exist as to the aims and objects of the Society, and he mentions that there is a slight danger of its being imagined that it is animated by a hostile spirit towards Italy. This, of course, is as far from the truth as is possible. Its object is to help to make aUnited Southern Slav State which, in the interests of the whole of Europe, shall offer a barrier against Teutonic aggression. Lord Cromer goes on to point out that if there had been the least intention of hostility to Italy and her best interests, which he admits include provision for her national security and for her predominance in the Adriatic, he would never have joined the Society. If, says Lord Cromer, when the final settlement comes, there are differences between Italian and Slav views, the aim of the Serbian Society will be one of conciliation. Lord Cromer ends by very rightly condemning the unwise, and of course wholly illusory and impossible, claim to the whole of Istria and Trieste lately made, on behalf of the South Slays, by some extremists in an insignificant pamphlet.